In a photofinishing environment such as in a wholesale photofinishing lab, a printer operator is kept busy by operating several commercial printers, scanners and other large pieces of photofinishing equipment that are spread over a broad area with subdued lighting. They also perform tasks that can take them away from their equipment. This makes it a challenge for the operator to keep track of the state of each printer, and more specifically, multiple paper supply and take-up magazines that they are responsible for reloading. The printer's operator control panel provides a central location for the communication of the state of the printer and its paper magazines. However, the operator's work load and work environment require that the operator control panel provide the information so that the operator can quickly and easily determine the state of the printer and its paper magazines at a glance from well beyond a normal reading distance. However, the layout and design of conventional operator control panels make it difficult for an operator to determine the state of a printer when he/she is standing beyond a normal reading distance from the printer.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of a known operator control panel 21 for an Agfa Dimax Optical Printer. Reference numeral 20 in FIG. 1 represents a paper supply information section. Within paper supply information section 20, the length of paper removed from an active paper supply magazine is shown in box 22 in standard size text. Further, a pair of small overlapping circles 24 represent two magazines, with a solid circle denoting which one is active. Additionally, a vertical progress bar 26 indicates the percentage of paper in the magazine. In operator control panel 21, a paper take-up information section 28 is also shown. Like paper supply information section 20, paper take-up information section 28 includes a box 30 which shows the length of paper on an active paper take-up magazine in standard size text. Paper take-up information section 28 further includes a pair of small overlapping circles 31 that represent two magazines, in which a solid circle denotes which one is active. Further, a vertical progress active bar 32 indicates the percentage of paper in the magazine. Operator control panel 21 further includes a section 34a which provides function mappings to numeric keys on a keyboard and information regarding the film reel and their products in large size text; a section 34b which provides printer status information in standard text; a section 34c which is a messaging area and provides information as to the status of major components in standard size text; a section 34d which represents a command line interface; and a section 34e which provides function mappings to function keys on a keyboard.
A disadvantage of operator control panel 21 is that it provides no indication of whether standby supply and take-up paper magazines are useable to the printer for the current defined product, and further does not provide information as to how much paper the stand-by magazines contain. Therefore, in using operator control panel 21, an operator would have to walk up to the printer to determine whether the magazines need to be changed. Also, operator control panel 21 provides no graphical indication as to a state of paper threading and does not provide for a touch-screen operation. Operator control panel 21 further does not show graphically that images are left in the paper track.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a known operator control panel 40 for a Gretag Syntra optical printer. Panel 42 is generally a Microsoft Windows desktop while clock 43 is provided with MS Windows. As illustrated in FIG. 2, operator control panel 40 comprises a section 42 that is a user interface. Section 42 includes paper threading information, paper supply information and paper take-up information. In operator control panel 40, an active paper take-up position is represented by a circle 44 located in a lower-left corner of a box 46 that represents a printer. If circle 44 appears in a further box 48, which is gray in the operator control panel of FIG. 2, a paper magazine exists in an active position. The amount of paper in the active magazine is indicated by a pie chart 50 within circle 44. The percentage filled would be provided in standard text, for example “30%” as shown in FIG. 2, above circle 44. A box-like strip 52 to the left of box 48 and outside of box 46 indicates the presence of a paper magazine in a stand-by position. Operator control panel 40 also includes paper supply information. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, an active paper supply position is represented by a circle 56 located in a lower-right comer of box 46 representing the printer. If the circle appears in a further box 58 such as a gray box, a paper magazine exists in an active position. The amount of paper in the active magazine would be indicated by a pie chart 60 within circle 56. The percentage filled would be provided by standard text such as, for example “70%”, as shown in FIG. 2. A box-like strip 62 to the right of active magazine 58 and outside of printer box 46 would indicate the presence of a paper magazine in a stand-by position.
Optical control panel 40 also provides paper threading information in the form of a solid line 64 that connects an active paper supply magazine and a take-up magazine. Solid line 64 as shown in FIG. 2 indicates a full threading, while a partial line would indicate a partial threading. On the other hand, no line indicates that there is no threading. Operator control panel 40 further includes sections 70a, 70b, 70c. Section 70a includes printer control buttons, section 70b includes statistics of a current batch represented in standard size text, and section 70c would include the status of the major components in standard size text. It is noted that a batch is a collection of photofinishing orders that have common attributes, such as a specific type of print.
A disadvantage of operator control panel 40 illustrated in FIG. 2 is that it provides no indication of whether a stand-by supply magazine and a take-up paper magazine are usable to the printer for the current defined product and how much paper they contain. Further, operator control panel 40 provides no indication of whether a paper magazine exists in a completed position for either paper supply or take-up. Also, line 64 that denotes paper threading is thin, making it difficult to see when viewing the screen from beyond a reading distance. Operator control panel 40 further does not graphically show via line 64 that images are left in the paper track. Further disadvantages of operator control panel 40 are that it does not provide a graphical representation of a completed magazine, does not provide an indication of what is in a stand-by magazine, does not provide an indication of what type of paper is in the standby magazine, and does not provide an indication of how much paper is in the stand-by magazine. Therefore, operator control panel 40 as illustrated in FIG. 2 does not provide all of the relevant information to the operator in a manner which makes it easy for the operator to read and comprehend.
A Kodak CLAS printer having an operator control panel is also known. A drawback with the operational control panel of the Kodak CLAS printer is that it uses basically standard size text to illustrate many of the functions of the printer. Further, the operational control panel of the Kodak CLAS printer does not use graphical representations of items such as active paper supply magazines and take-up magazines as well as paper threading.